BirdTrout

Wild turkey Hunting in Virginia

Meleagris gallopavo

Open October 3, 2026 to January 23, 2027 — the days depend on the zone, and they are in the table below. In Virginia it is a stronghold.

Last updated 2026-08-24 · from VDWR data · 2026–27 licence year

The bird

Wild turkey
Wikimedia Commons — Frank Schulenburg — CC BY-SA 4.0

Restored across its whole range from near-total loss, and one of the great conservation successes — it is now the most widely recorded bird on this list, by a wide margin. It feeds on mast in open hardwood — oak and beech — and uses fields and log landings to strut and loaf in, roosting in big trees at night. A tom shows a beard, a bare blue-and-red head and a fanned tail.

Written for this app. Not an agency description and not a regulation — everything below this point that is a rule carries the page it was read from.

Where it is in Virginia

a stronghold An editorial summary of the bird's status in this state — not a population estimate and not a survey.

Statewide and one of the largest populations on this list. The fall firearms season runs on four different sets of dates over four groups of counties; spring is statewide and bearded-only.

Open this map in the app
Stronghold Regular Present Occasional No records The 10 units in the table below 5 units too small to draw
43 of 53 subbasins draining Virginia carry a wild turkey record. Observed occurrences, not a range map and not a habitat model. Scored as a share of all bird records in the same cell, so a well-watched county does not read as better bird country than an unwatched one. The mesh is the subbasin — the unit this app scores in — and not the state line, so its edge is a drainage divide rather than a border. The green is the 10 public units in the table below, drawn as PAD-US records their boundaries: context, not permission.

Season and limits

VDWR's own dates for the 2026–27 licence year, read from VDWR. Virginia lists this season as Wild turkey (fall).

ZoneOpensClosesDays
Albemarle, Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Greene, Highland, Madison, Page and Rockingham counties boundary not mapped October 17, 2026 October 30, 2026 14
November 26, 2026 November 26, 2026 1
Bedford, Bland, Botetourt, Caroline, Carroll, Clarke, Craig, Culpeper, Dickenson, Essex, Fairfax, Fauquier, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, King and Queen, King George, King William, Lancaster, Lee, Loudoun, Montgomery, Nelson, Northumberland, Prince William, Pulaski, Rappahannock, Richmond, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Stafford, Washington, Westmoreland, Wise and Wythe counties, plus Camp Peary, Hampton and Newport News boundary not mapped October 17, 2026 October 30, 2026 14
November 25, 2026 November 26, 2026 2
November 30, 2026 December 26, 2026 27
January 9, 2027 January 23, 2027 15
Accomack, Amelia, Dinwiddie, Gloucester, Greensville, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Middlesex, New Kent, Northampton, Powhatan, Prince George, Southampton, Surry, Sussex and York counties, plus Suffolk boundary not mapped October 17, 2026 October 30, 2026 14
November 25, 2026 November 26, 2026 2
November 30, 2026 December 12, 2026 13
Amherst, Appomattox, Brunswick, Buchanan, Buckingham, Campbell, Charles City, Charlotte, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Floyd, Fluvanna, Frederick, Goochland, Halifax, Hanover, Henrico, Henry, Louisa, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Orange, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Tazewell and Warren counties boundary not mapped October 17, 2026 October 30, 2026 14
November 25, 2026 November 26, 2026 2
November 30, 2026 December 12, 2026 13
January 9, 2027 January 23, 2027 15
Statewide archery October 3, 2026 November 13, 2026 42
Bag limit
1 per day
Hunter orange
required Every hunter, and anyone accompanying one, must wear a solid blaze orange or blaze pink hat, or solid blaze upper-body clothing visible from 360 degrees, or display at least 100 square inches of solid blaze material at shoulder level, visible from 360 degrees.
Sundays
Virginia allows Sunday hunting, with two exceptions: not within 200 yards of a house of worship, and not for deer or bear with dogs.

Where to hunt it

All 130 of Virginia's huntable public units name wild turkey among their species. Acreage is the same the map is drawn from.

ClassUnitsAcres
National forest191,674,677
State wildlife management area111227,735
Total1301,902,412

PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its boundary runs on the ground and not whether a unit carries a local closure. Context, not permission — check the unit with VDWR before you park.

Hours, orange and licences

Shooting hours
One half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset.
Not Michigan's rule. Virginia gives you the extra half-hour at the end of the day that Michigan does not, and this app's hunt planner draws the Michigan line — so the shaded evening on the planner is conservative here rather than wrong. Spring turkey runs on its own hours: until 12 noon for the first sixteen days, then to sunset. VDWR
Licences
  • Hunting licence
    Everyone, resident or not — Bought through Go Outdoors Virginia, and what every other permit is added to.
  • Hunter education certificate
    Anyone born on or after 1 January 1961, and every hunter under 16 — Or an apprentice licence, which lets an uncertified hunter hunt under supervision.
  • Federal HIP registration
    Woodcock and every other migratory bird — Free, and it lapses every July 1 — last season's registration is not this season's.
  • Public land permits
    Hunters on national forest and some WMAs — Virginia sells a separate access permit for national forest and DWR land. Check which your ground needs before you park.

The questions under this one

A page each, because each one is its own search. This page is the whole picture; those answer one thing and show the rows behind the answer.

Where in Virginia

Wild turkey in other states